1. Field
Example aspects described herein relate generally to directing data on a network, and, more specifically, to addressing degradation or failure of a microwave link on a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a network using microwave and/or Wi-Fi devices and connections, degradation of a microwave link can occur for a number of reasons. For example, when a microwave link relies on point-to-point transmission between antennas, the link can be degraded or blocked entirely due to weather such as heavy rain, or due to vegetation growing over or blocking the path of transmission. Degradation can also occur due to issues internal to the network, such as a hardware failure.
One conventional technique for addressing such degradation is to route network traffic around the impacted link (e.g., to another path on the network). Devices on the network may also transmit less data.
Nevertheless, packet forwarding devices (e.g., routers, Ethernet switches, optical transport network switches) or other equipment connected to an impacted link do not have visibility to the nature of the degradation. Put another way, the rest of the network is not aware of the nature of the problem or that a problem even exists. Thus, if the network attempts to address the problem by simply re-routing network traffic around the impacted link or reducing overall transmission rates, customer traffic may be arbitrarily dropped or delayed, and available bandwidth in other links may be overloaded.